“Technology in paleontology hasn’t changed in about 150 years,” says paleontologist Dr Kenneth Lacovara. “We use shovels and pickaxes and burlap and plaster. It hasn’t changed – until right now.”

Using 3-D printing can not only create exact-size replicas for museum display, but also test possible movements of extinct species.

“We don’t know a lot about the way dinosaurs move,” says Lacovara.

“How did they stand? How did they ambulate? Did they run or trot? How did they reproduce? It’s all a bit mysterious.”

When working with enormous dinosaur fossils, Lacovara said, it’s simply physically impossible to manipulate the bones to test theories about mechanics and movement – which is why scaled-down replicas that preserve the exact shape and proportion of the bones can help.
Researchers can also digitally reshape the models to correct for changes that may have occurred over millions of years of fossilization and compression.

Lacovara’s team is now working on robotic models of giant sauropod dinosaurs, attaching artificial muscles and tendons to perform comprehensive tests of how the animal’s body could have handled physical stresses of the environment.

Lacovara predicts that they’ll have a working robotic dinosaur limb constructed by the end of this year, with a complete robotic dinosaur replica in a year or two.

via TGDaily

Working closely with Autodesk, and 3D Systems, WB Engineering provides the best solutions for your design challenges, with an offering which includes everything from Autodesk training, to design process automation, ERP integration, and product development, to 3D Printing. Located in Miami, focused on the manufacturing and industrial markets, we are an engineering services company, combining talented people and business processes to provide Digital and Rapid Prototyping solutions (products and services). All of our efforts are focused on helping companies compress time to market, and decreasing design cost to add to our customers bottom line. Our approach to Digital Prototyping and Rapid Prototyping is scalable and cost effective, which can help your organization boost design efficiency while delivering more innovative design ideas.

Digital artists devoted days and years behind the scenes to help create the movie magic seen in many of this year’s Academy Award-nominated films. In the categories for Best Visual Effects and Best Animated Film (Feature and Short) in particular, many artists relied on the same set of tools –Digital Entertainment Creation (DEC) software from Autodesk, Inc.(NASDAQ: ADSK).

“Great films depend on great storytelling and our technology is designed to enable artistic vision,” said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “We congratulate the multitalented teams of artists from North America, New Zealand, Europe and Asia, and we are proud of Autodesk software’s role in helping them create these extraordinary movies.”

Best Visual Effects

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ — UK-based visual effects (VFX) studios Double Negative, MPC and Framestore each usedAutodesk Maya 3D animation and rendering software to help create the visually extravagant effects for this final installment in the Harry Potter franchise. Double Negative VFX Supervisor David Vickery said, “Maya has been the lynchpin of our pipeline since ‘Goblet of Fire.’ For this film, Maya helped us build a fully computer-generated (CG) Hogwarts in a massive 3D environment, including a spectacular mountain range and an animated fire-breathing dragon digitally modeled with Autodesk Mudbox software.” MPC VFX Supervisor Greg Butler added, “From the first film in the ‘Potter’ series through to this film’s final shot, MPC has relied on Maya for modeling, rigging and lighting.” Andy Kind, Framestore VFX supervisor said, “Autodesk’s Maya once again was our go-to tool, enabling us to bring to life the magic of the Chamber of Secrets for Ron and Hermione’s first kiss, as well as Harry’s vision of Heaven. We couldn’t have done any of the eight films without it!”

“Hugo” – VFX studio Pixomondo managed a global production team across 10 of its 11 facilities in North America, Europe and Asia for this richly detailed reimagining of 1930s Paris. The worldwide team worked for over a year using a production pipeline comprised of Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max for animation, rendering, character rigging and modeling; as well as Autodesk MotionBuilder for motion capture and animation. VFX Supervisor Ben Grossmann said, “The interoperability of Autodesk tools helped us meet tight deadlines and bring Martin Scorsese’s magical vision to the big screen.”

“Real Steel” – Visual effects powerhouse Digital Domain, motion-capture specialists Giant Studios and virtual production innovators Technoprops delivered “Real Steel” within an impressively efficient 71-day production schedule. The close collaboration between the three companies and an Autodesk toolset helped create this realistic and thrilling action movie with a believable and captivating robot and human relationship. VFX Supervisor Erik Nash said, “The on-set real-time interoperability of Maya and MotionBuilder enabled tremendous creative freedom for the entire production team.”

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” — Caesar, the CG chimpanzee performed by Andy Serkis is a creative milestone for Weta Digital in New Zealand. Weta used Maya and MotionBuilder as the core of its creative production pipelines for its groundbreaking visual effects and performance capture. Sebastian Sylwan, chief technology officer at Weta said, “Creating a believable and realistic CG character like Caesar required providing our artists with the right tools and innovative technology that allowed them to iterate and express their creativity. We developed our own software to perfect performance capture, hair, eyes and muscles amongst others, using Maya and MotionBuilder as a backbone.” Canada-based Image Engine contributed previsualization for the film and also took advantage of a Maya-based pipeline.

“Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon” – The extraordinarily detailed Transformer robots contain up to 50,000 million polygons rendered in stereoscopic 3D by lead visual effects houses Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) with studios in San Francisco and Singapore and Digital Domain. ILM used the following Autodesk DEC software tools in its pipeline: 3ds Max for digital environment work; Autodesk Flame as part of its proprietary SABRE high-speed compositing system; and Maya as the core tool for animation, rigging and layout. Scott Farrar, visual effects supervisor on ‘Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon’ said, “As effects work continues to grow in complexity, it is more important than ever that our artists have access to best of breed tools and by using Autodesk’s Digital Entertainment Creation software, ILM is able to continue to create groundbreaking visual effects.”

Best Animated Feature Film

“Kung Fu Panda 2″ and “Puss in Boots” – Both movies earned not only Academy Award nominations for Animated Feature Film for Dreamworks Animation (DWA), but also were two of the top three grossing animated films of 2011.* DWA continues to creatively push technology to imbue animated characters with huge personalities, and both films used Maya. Phil McNally, stereoscopic supervisor on both movies said, “Either on our own or in concert with Autodesk, we can develop tools in Maya to specifically address the challenges of stereoscopic 3D. Maya gives us that intuitive flexibility, or the ability to see what we’re doing — while we’re doing it — in 3D.”

“Rango”

“Rango,” the story of a weird lizard’s quest for identity, was ILM’s first animated feature. The film presented some daunting creative and technical challenges: Rango’s face alone required over 300 controllers to achieve the range of performance needed for the 1,100 shots he appears in. On top of which, Rango was just one of well over 100 characters that populated the film. “All of these characters had some combination of scales, feathers, or fur and all had clothing. We strove to create a very tactile world for Rango,” said ILM’s Hal Hickel, animator director on the film. “We wanted to create the illusion that if you could reach out and touch objects in the frame you’d know exactly what they would feel like, so it was very important that our software enable us to show as much detail as possible at each phase of the process. This allowed us to make certain the performances would translate to the big screen. Maya was great at letting us do that.”

Other Categories

• “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” – nominated for Short Film (animated) – Moonbot Studios in Louisiana used Maya to help create this poignant and humorous allegorical film.
• “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” – nominated for five awards — Digital Domain created digital doubles, matte paintings, animation and set extensions using both Maya and 3ds Max. Method Studios contributed to 101 VFX shots, including a fully CG train sequence through a snow-covered landscape using Maya, Flame and Autodesk Flare software. Blur Studios created the amazing title sequence using a combination of 3ds Max for animation and Autodesk Softimage for keyframing.
• “La Luna” – nominated for Short Film (animated) — Pixar used Maya and Pixar’s own Renderman to create this mystical coming-of-age story.
• “The Muppets” – nominated for Original Song — LOOK Effects used a combination of Flame, Flare and Maya to help bring these beloved characters to life in this box-office hit.
• “The Tree of Life” – nominated for three awards including Best Picture — Method Studios used Maya to help create the fully CG 4K (4096 í- 3112 pixels per frame) sequence for the film’s “Microbial” section, which plays effectively alongside practical and mixed-technique approaches. Method’s EVP Dan Glass was also the film’s overall senior visual effects supervisor. Prime Focus used Maya, 3ds Max and Mudbox to create the wonderfully realistic dinosaur sequences, dedicating a team of 50 artists to achieving Terrence Malick’s vision for these scenes.
• “War Horse” – nominated for six awards including Best Picture — UK-based Framestore used Maya to help create the equine digital double, barbwire VFX integration, digital environments and clean-up on 200 shots for Steven Spielberg’s epic drama. Hollywood and London-based The Third Floor also previsualized key sequences using a toolset that includes Maya.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries — including the last 16 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects — use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.

* Source: Box Office Mojo

Autodesk, AutoCAD, Flame, Flare, Maya, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, Softimage and 3ds Max are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

© 2012 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Working closely with Autodesk, and 3D Systems, WB Engineering provides the best solutions for your design challenges, with an offering which includes everything from Autodesk training, to design process automation, ERP integration, and product development, to 3D Printing. Located in Miami, focused on the manufacturing and industrial markets, we are an engineering services company, combining talented people and business processes to provide Digital and Rapid Prototyping solutions (products and services). All of our efforts are focused on helping companies compress time to market, and decreasing design cost to add to our customers bottom line. Our approach to Digital Prototyping and Rapid Prototyping is scalable and cost effective, which can help your organization boost design efficiency while delivering more innovative design ideas.

“Additive Workshop bridges the gap between the real world and the virtual world,” says Mark Ghiglieri, CEO of Additive Workshop. “Our technology allows us to bring pieces of art into the world in an infinite number of ways, and that is why our business is exploding. Everyone from museums to movie studios needs our help to create incredible works of art in a short amount of time.”

Traditionally, creating 3D art has meant hundreds of hours of sculpting, creating a piece from scratch using wood, clay, and other materials. Given their labor intensiveness, an artist might only be able to produce 4-5 projects in a given year. If they want to create an exact replica, they would have to start over from scratch.

Using 3D scanning and printing, artists are now able to capture digital images of their creations down to the smallest of details. Using today’s technology, it’s possible to generate 8 million bits of information per square inch scanned–precise enough to capture fingerprints and eyelashes. Once the object is scanned, a 3D mold is created and can be sent to a 3D printer, where they can determine the size of the object, which can be as small as a dime or larger than a 747. As a result, they can focus on new art instead of laboring for months on end creating one life-sized bronze statue. They’re also able to easily produce exact replicas of each piece in different sizes, which allows them to make their art available for customers at different price points.

Beyond the obvious benefits to artists, 3D scanning and printing allows museums to, for the first-time ever, create digital backups of every art masterpiece in their collection. Until recently, the only way to create molds of ancient artifacts and statues would have required going into each museum and carefully placing Plaster of Paris over each piece—something that would have been incredibly time consuming (if a museum would even agree to it). Now, in a matter of minutes, it’s possible to create digital scans without even having to physically touch the statues. Having digital scans would have made it possible to recreate exact replicas of items that were stolen or damaged when Cairo’s Egyptian National Museum was looted in early 2011–items which included a statue of King Tut.

Business and entertainment companies are also hopping onboard. Nike recently commissioned the creation of 10-foot-tall basketball players to hang from the ceiling during the grand opening of their anchor store in Times Square (pictured, top)–pieces Additive was able to create from only a drawing. Among other projects, Additive also created Spirit Bear, which was displayed during the Opening Ceremony of the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver B.C. and was a whopping 65-feet tall.

As 3D scanning and printing becomes more and more sophisticated, art and engineering will continue to converge. Artists will be able to harness the power of rapid prototyping to bring their ideas to life and do so exponentially faster and at a fraction of the cost. That same technology will also help to ensure the world’s masterpieces and artifacts are safe for generations to come.

[Image: Additive Workshop]

via Fast Company

Working closely with Autodesk, and 3D Systems, WB Engineering provides the best solutions for your design challenges, with an offering which includes everything from Autodesk training, to design process automation, ERP integration, and product development, to 3D Printing. Located in Miami, focused on the manufacturing and industrial markets, we are an engineering services company, combining talented people and business processes to provide Digital and Rapid Prototyping solutions (products and services). All of our efforts are focused on helping companies compress time to market, and decreasing design cost to add to our customers bottom line. Our approach to Digital Prototyping and Rapid Prototyping is scalable and cost effective, which can help your organization boost design efficiency while delivering more innovative design ideas.

I love 3D printing and here’s why. It’s a tasty topic. It will revolutionize the way people work and live, and resurrect the American manufacturing movement.

These 3D printers and production systems range in size from a Hasbro® Easy-Bakeoven to an over-sized True® refrigeration system. Hey, they say cooking is the way to a man’s heart and that’s the easiest way I know how to explain it. Anyway, it’s as amazing as the ol’ microwave oven, put something in and it comes out just they way you want it.

3D printers have been used to make chocolate and decorate cakes, and the world of 3D printing is virtually endless. You can make almost anything you want — a pearl-like necklace, a bicycle chain, a wrench… or complex automotive parts, medical implants and aerospace components. All you need is an idea, CAD and the perfect machine. Take a look at these sweethearts:

BotMill Axis

3D Systems BotMill
BotMill manufactures desktop 3D printer kits, materials and accessories. The products are geared for the educational, hobbyist and consumer markets. Both the Axis 2.1 (DIY Kit) and the Glider 3.0 (Plug-N-Print) come with everything you need, including full instructions, tools and dedicated support. 3D Systems is headquartered in South Carolina, USA.

Mcor Matrix 300

Mcor Technologies

The Matrix 300 has a new sleek design with an improved user friendly interface making 3D printing easier than ever. The eco-friendly system uses A4 paper and a water based adhesive which makes the 3D parts. Reportedly, models straight out of the Matrix are tough, durable  and meet a wide range of form fit and feel requirements. Mcor Technologies is headquartered in Ireland.

Objet Connex500

Objet
Using Objet’s patented simultaneous multi-material jetting technology, the Objet Connex500 can print models made of up to 14 different materials, in a single print job. The system is ideal for designers and engineers looking to effectively highlight the varying material components in complex or assembled products. Objet offers a wide selection of engineering materials to choose from — 65+. Objet Geometries is headquartered in Israel.

Stratasys uPrint

Stratasys
The new uPrint SE 3D Print Pack you don’t have to worry about purchasing extra equipment, additional accessories or hidden post-processing costs. You get everything you need to start printing concept models right away. Start-up Kit includes one spool of ivory ABSplus modeling material, one spool of support material, EcoWorks™ Cleaning Agent, six modeling bases and more. Stratasys offers financing in the US on approved credit — leasing options start at $290 a month. Stratasys is headquartered in Minnesota, USA.

via Rapid Product Development

Working closely with Autodesk, and 3D Systems, WB Engineering provides the best solutions for your design challenges, with an offering which includes everything from Autodesk training, to design process automation, ERP integration, and product development, to 3D Printing. Located in Miami, focused on the manufacturing and industrial markets, we are an engineering services company, combining talented people and business processes to provide Digital and Rapid Prototyping solutions (products and services). All of our efforts are focused on helping companies compress time to market, and decreasing design cost to add to our customers bottom line. Our approach to Digital Prototyping and Rapid Prototyping is scalable and cost effective, which can help your organization boost design efficiency while delivering more innovative design ideas.

Competition is getting tougher. To stay competitive, you need a powerful set of tools that make your job more efficient. You need software that can help you deliver more for your clients. All at an exceptional value.

And that’s what you get when you move to an Autodesk® suite or other Autodesk software—with 0% financing when you purchase by April 13, 2012.

See the Demand More video to learn more about this exciting offer!

Call us today at (305) 756-4401 or try a different way to contact us.

While there are different kinds of 3D printing, all 3D objects are generally built out of layers. A 3D printer starts with the bottom layer, waits for it to dry or solidify, and then works its way up. This layering process differs depending on the printer and the material it works with — metal, plaster, polymer, resin — but it also depends on whether it’s an industrial or commercial 3D printer.

Industrial vs. commercial

While consumer- and small business-oriented 3D printing is only just taking off, mostly thanks to theMakerBot and RepRaps, 3D printing has been used in an industrial setting for 30 years. Industrial 3D printers tend to be very large and very expensive, but at the same time they are a lot faster than commercial printers. Some industrial printers can print with multiple nozzles at the same time, or even use metal (more on that later). For the most part, industrial printers are nearly always used for rapid prototyping (usually by architects, automakers), but sometimes 3D printed objects — especially in the case of metal objects — are used in final products.

Consumer-oriented 3D printers are cheaper, smaller, slower, and are usually lower resolution than their industrial counterparts. Consumer printers are still used for rapid prototyping, but they’re also used by people who just like the idea of printing stuff out. Generally, consumer printers use thermoplastic extrusion — i.e. it dribbles out tiny dots of melted plastic.

Different printing techniques

Depending on the material used, how many colors you want, the resolution you require, and how much money you’re willing to fork out, there are at least five popular 3D printing methods to choose from. Some are very similar, but some are really rather crazy (or brilliant).

• Fused deposition modeling – The most common 3D printing method is fused deposition modeling (FDM). The raw material with this process is a spool of plastic or metal wire, which is melted and placed by the printer’s nozzle. It quickly hardens, and then the next layer can be added. As far as commercial printers are concerned, FDM always uses plastic wire (filament) and is usually called “thermoplastic deposition” in layman’s terms
• Inkjet printing — Using special inks (resins and binders) it’s possible to build up a 3D model using a device that’s very similar to a home or office inkjet printer. Layer upon layer of resin and binder are added until an object is created. This is the only 3D printing process that allows for custom colors.
• Selective laser sintering – Sintering is the process of creating solid objects from powders, and in the case of selective laser sintering (SLS) the powder can be metal, plastic, ceramic, or glass. Basically, SLS uses a pulsed laser to “draw” the desired cross-section. The powder fuses, and then then the laser forms the next layer on top. This is very much an industrial method, as it requires a rather strong laser.
• Digital light processing – With DLP (yes, the same technology behind DLP projectors), a vat of liquid polymer is turned into a very strong solid by exposing it to light. Very high accuracy/resolution can be achieved with this technique — and again, this is an industrial method. Stereolithography is similar to DLP manufacturing, but a lot more expensive.
• The others – Finally, there are a few 3D printing techniques that aren’t used extensively, but could be in the future. Resin can be cured using LEDs (similar to the DLP approach); 2-photon photopolymerization can be used to create ultra-small 3D-printed features; laminated object manufacturing uses bits of paper or card stuck together that are then cut out using a laser.

The future of 3D printing

We’ve already alluded to a few uses for 3D printing — prototyping, making stuff at home — but it’s worth diving into some of the crazier things that 3D printing is capable of now, and what it will be capable of in the future.

3D printers can be used to create titanium aircraft parts, human bones, complex, nano-scale machines, and more. In the future, it’s fairly safe to assume that we’ll be able to manufacture almost anything with a 3D printer — and everything we can’t make with a printer (clothes, textiles), automated CNC machines, or something like them, will take care of. Ultimately, 3D printers might also be the key to matter replicators, just like in Star Trek. It’s important to note that we already have very accurate tools for creating 3D models of existing objects; we have the ability to scan a cup, and then create an exact copy using a 3D printer.

Eventually, one day, you will walk up to a 3D printer and say “make me an iPad,” and it will make you an iPad. If we can create 3D printers with atomic-level resolution, they might also usher in another Star Trek gadget:  teleporters. There’s also the (rather worrying?) fact that many commercial printers are labeled as “self-replicating,” in that they’re capable of printing their own replacement parts. In other words, if we gave a 3D printer some kind of artificial intelligence, who knows what it would do.

For more about 3D printing, check Tony Hoffman’s excellent article on PC Magazine.

[Image credit]

via ExtremeTech

Working closely with Autodesk, and 3D Systems, WB Engineering provides the best solutions for your design challenges, with an offering which includes everything from Autodesk training, to design process automation, ERP integration, and product development, to 3D Printing. Located in Miami, focused on the manufacturing and industrial markets, we are an engineering services company, combining talented people and business processes to provide Digital and Rapid Prototyping solutions (products and services). All of our efforts are focused on helping companies compress time to market, and decreasing design cost to add to our customers bottom line. Our approach to Digital Prototyping and Rapid Prototyping is scalable and cost effective, which can help your organization boost design efficiency while delivering more innovative design ideas.

Both could be tremendously successful, but neither has fully caught on with the masses. The technology hasn’t yet reached a tipping point towards broader adoption. How much better does 3D printing need to be to transform manufacturing as we know it?

Ch-ch-ch-changes
Like many other technology platforms, 3D printers have undergone incredible improvements over the past decade. To find out just how much has changed, I decided to compare the best Stratasys model of a decade ago to the 3D Systems Cube, the first machine marketed towards neophytes:

Sources: Archived Stratasys website (Wayback Machine) and Cubify.com. * Cost adjusted for inflation.
The Cube manages to keep accuracy on par with the best machine of 2002 while costing just 1/240 the price. Stratasys’ top model today costs $380,000, but its accuracy tops out at 0.089 mm, just less than twice as precise as the Cube. Its major advantage is its large capacity and the ability to use multiple materials, areas where the Cube is limited. This isn’t trivial: Multi-material capabilities will be essential to broader adoption, and a cubic working area less than six inches to a side significantly restricts what can be made.

How might adoption take place, and what will it take to get there? Let’s look at both scenarios.

A 3D printer in every home?
Unless you’re one of the resourcefully technical sorts with a lot of experience in 3D modeling, you probably aren’t even sure what you’d do with a new 3D printer. 3D Systems hopes to overcome that barrier with ease-of-use apps and premade designs on Cubify.com, companion site to the Cube. Microsoft’s Kinect provides one way to simplify things, but it may not be enough by itself to initiate the widespread adoption of in-home 3D printing.

You don’t need design talent to print to paper. Most flat printing is straightforward, like copying that chowder recipe off the Internet, or tweaking your newest resume. But step into a 3D design program and things can get complicated quickly. A Kinect and ease-of-use apps can lower the entry barriers, but the creative and technical skills to make full use of the medium remain beyond the reach of many.

No “killer app”
Even leaving off the extra complexity, why would most people even need a 3D printer in their home? I walked through my house to find something would make more sense to  print in 3D than to buy, but came up with nothing. I can’t print clothes. I don’t need new cups and bowls every month. I certainly don’t need cheap plastic dinnerware when I can buy a perfectly nice ceramic set for the cost of a single Cube 3D print cartridge.

MakerBot Industries, a low-cost 3-D printer startup, notes that you can “make shower curtain rings, bath plugs, [and] door knobs” with its printer. Seriously. Because nothing justifies the purchase of a $1,750 toy like making your own bath plugs.

But what if I decide that I want unique flooring that can’t be found at Home Depot? Now we’re getting somewhere.

Make it on the spot at a different spot
Most may not need to make their own stuff more than once or twice a year. But offer the chance to put a unique spin on basic objects made of plastic, glass, metal, ceramic, and even chocolate, and millions will line up over that same time frame. Private companies like Shapeways already offer outsourced -D printing services, a model 3D Systems is moving toward with Cubify.com.

Printing in 3D is good enough today to create hearing aids and replacement joints for delicate humans. There’s no reason the technology can’t take a prominent place in home improvement warehouses to, say, print customized flooring or ensure there are enough snow shovels before a blizzard. The only restrictions are material cost and printable size. Instead of shrinking, 3D printers should be getting bigger and more efficient. A six-foot tall printer should be able to craft something that’s not much smaller than its own footprint.

If you build it
Home Depot and Lowe’s already seem ideally suited for 3D printing. Many things handy folks need are simply made and have straightforward designs, so they’re easily customized or otherwise replicated on site. There will be plenty of other ways to bring 3D printing to retail environments, especially once multiple materials can be easily manipulated within the same object.

I’m not the only one advocating scaled-up 3D printing, either. Several teams have been working on construction-scale printing contraptions in recent years, with the hopes that they will eventually create entire buildings. One even aims to print buildings on the moon. If 3D printing can go into space, why not into the mall? It’s a lot closer, and probably a good deal more profitable. The machines seem to be capable of necessary scale and precision and have by now successfully utilized a broad range of materials. The larger obstacles are strategy and software, and there’s no reason both can’t be updated.

When 3-D printing manufacturers figure out how to crack the retail market, they’ll make previous growth rates seem puny. But you don’t have to wait to find companies that are changing the world and making money at the same time. Check out our brand new free report, “Discover the Next Rule-Breaking Multibagger.” This company is behind a medical transformation helping doctors improve the lives of thousands. Enhance the growth prospects for your portfolio by downloading your free copy today.

via TheMotleyFool

Working closely with Autodesk, and 3D Systems, WB Engineering provides the best solutions for your design challenges, with an offering which includes everything from Autodesk training, to design process automation, ERP integration, and product development, to 3D Printing. Located in Miami, focused on the manufacturing and industrial markets, we are an engineering services company, combining talented people and business processes to provide Digital and Rapid Prototyping solutions (products and services). All of our efforts are focused on helping companies compress time to market, and decreasing design cost to add to our customers bottom line. Our approach to Digital Prototyping and Rapid Prototyping is scalable and cost effective, which can help your organization boost design efficiency while delivering more innovative design ideas.

WB Engineering is playing a unique role in execution of this art show that will surely please fans of Ahol Sniffs Glue. The show includes a multimedia installation, sound sculpture works, drawings and photography. Sound sculpture? That’s where we come in.

3D printed sound sculpture

KnightArts reports “for the sound sculpture piece, Ahol isolated some of the most iconic requests from the porn clients via phone orders, digitalized the phrases and had them manufactured as 3D sculptures, made of resin”. Five of these interactive 3D printed sound waves make up part of the show. Blowing on the sound sculpture allows it to rotate on the wire bringing the sound wave to life.

The Admission is free and open to the public. DJ Sets by Jose Blue Jeans, Mr. Feathers, and O Von Bass Warrior. Complimentary cocktails will be served courtesy of Don Abuelo Rum.  There will also be an after-party following the reception beginning at 11:00 P.M. at The Vagabond.

View Larger Map

Working closely with Autodesk, and 3D Systems, WB Engineering provides the best solutions for your design challenges, with an offering which includes everything from Autodesk training, to design process automation, ERP integration, and product development, to 3D Printing. Located in Miami, focused on the manufacturing and industrial markets, we are an engineering services company, combining talented people and business processes to provide Digital and Rapid Prototyping solutions (products and services). All of our efforts are focused on helping companies compress time to market, and decreasing design cost to add to our customers bottom line. Our approach to Digital Prototyping and Rapid Prototyping is scalable and cost effective, which can help your organization boost design efficiency while delivering more innovative design ideas.

Sony Pictures’ upcoming “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” still uses molding clay and traditional stop-motion animation to bring its wide-eyed characters to life, but creator Aardman Animations happily embraced a strange new technology to make those figures speak: 3D printers.

A 3D printer is much like an ordinary one, but it works in a third dimension, depositing a substance that eventually builds up, layer by layer, into an object — a ball, a model airplane, or an animated critter.

“We built about 8,000 mouths,” key animator Ian Whitlock said, explaining how he brought the various characters to life in an unusually short time. “For the Pirate Captain model, we made 257 separate mouths. For someone like Charles Darwin, we probably had about 130 mouths.”

A 3D printer connects to a computer and receives a file that describes an object in three dimensions, explained Rich Brown, senior editor at cnet.com.

“It works much like a 2D printer,” he said. “The layers build up in liquid form. The material solidifies as it prints out each layer, and the end result is a 3D object in real life.”

The 3D printing of all those different mouths helped speed up the animation process, allowing for more details and characters in the film.

“We’d still be shooting now if we had to sculpt all of these mouths,” Whitlock said. “Even with 3D printing, you can easily spend two to three months on a character. I probably did five or six characters in the space of 10 months.”

The film’s animators broke down the mouth shapes of the characters by listening to an actor’s dialogue. “That would be broken down onto a ‘dope sheet,’ which is a phonetic breakdown,” Whitlock said. “When the directors were happy with the way the mouths looked, then the files would be sent off to a rapid prototype machine, which would then physically print the mouths out.

“When the mouths are printed out, they’re sort of a flesh color. It’s the same technology used to create hearing aides. They have about 14 different skin tones … once it’s done, we sand it and paint it.”

Whitlock said “The Pirates!” is the first animated film to widely embrace 3D printing, although the 2009 film “Coraline” used a similar technique on a smaller scale.

“Using 3D printing technology in animation is brand new to me,” Brown said. “I had no idea they were using 3D printing for a movie. I’m surprised that it turned out to be faster [than traditional animation].”

It’s not just faster, but a tremendous boon, Aardman Animations cofounder and movie director Peter Lord said.

“You can get stronger individual animation styles to each face because of the way that they’re made,” Lord said. “You retain the style very faithfully, so that’s very helpful.”

Animation technology has come a long way since Lord first made a bit of plasticine clay come to life in the ’70s. “My model-making skill was zero, so every character had to have huge feet with big, thick legs in order to stand up right,” he said.

“It was all shot on film with a clockwork camera and the exposure was all over the place. My animation was so bad … and of course there was no playback, so you’d animate all day, and everything that you’d done was hidden in the camera on a roll of film. Then you send it to the lab and keep your fingers crossed.”

Despite all the advances in animation technology, the Aardman team still painstakingly creates the expressions of the characters’ eyes using hand-molded plasticine — much as Lord did almost 40 years ago.

“The most important thing for the performance is through the eyes,” Whitlock explained. “It meant having a more organic performance, keeping it as clay. It keeps the acting the way we want it.”

“The Pirates! Band of Misfits” is set to be released in theaters on April 27.

Via Fox News

Working closely with Autodesk, and 3D Systems, WB Engineering provides the best solutions for your design challenges, with an offering which includes everything from Autodesk training, to design process automation, ERP integration, and product development, to 3D Printing. Located in Miami, focused on the manufacturing and industrial markets, we are an engineering services company, combining talented people and business processes to provide Digital and Rapid Prototyping solutions (products and services). All of our efforts are focused on helping companies compress time to market, and decreasing design cost to add to our customers bottom line. Our approach to Digital Prototyping and Rapid Prototyping is scalable and cost effective, which can help your organization boost design efficiency while delivering more innovative design ideas.

Due to the patient’s age, this wasn’t an ideal solution, so the team collaborated with Xilloc, a company specializing in tailor-made implants, and LayerWise, a metal additive manufacturer, to create a 3D printed prosthetic jaw. The team used traditional computer-aided design (CAD) software to model the implant, but when it came to constructing it, they needed to think outside the box.

Consumer-facing 3D printers commonly use materials such as plastic or resin to sculpt their creations, which would have been unsuitable for surgical application, so LayerWise used powdered titanium. A high-precision laser selectively heated the metal powder particles, fusing each layer together without the need for glue. Afterwards, a bioceramic coating was applied to the prosthetic to prevent the patient’s body from rejecting the implant. The whole manufacturing process took just a couple of hours, and while at 107g, it weighs a little more than a ‘natural’ lower jaw, the team says it hasn’t caused any problems.

Because of the (comparatively) non-invasive nature of the surgery, the patient regained full mandibular movement the day after the operation, allowing her to speak and swallow normally. This is quite an advance in the field of prosthetics – the prospect of tailoring artificial bones to individual patients needs, all within hours, is something worth getting excited about.

Note: The video below contains (still) imagery of the prosthetic being implanted.

via The Verge

Working closely with Autodesk, and 3D Systems, WB Engineering provides the best solutions for your design challenges, with an offering which includes everything from Autodesk training, to design process automation, ERP integration, and product development, to 3D Printing. Located in Miami, focused on the manufacturing and industrial markets, we are an engineering services company, combining talented people and business processes to provide Digital and Rapid Prototyping solutions (products and services). All of our efforts are focused on helping companies compress time to market, and decreasing design cost to add to our customers bottom line. Our approach to Digital Prototyping and Rapid Prototyping is scalable and cost effective, which can help your organization boost design efficiency while delivering more innovative design ideas.